Compound tib and fib

[blueblonde123]

I had a nasty accident (horse reared, lost her balance and fell on me) and had a severe compund fracture as well as breaking both bones in another 2 places. What I want to know is: anyone have any experience of this and how long did you take to get back to normal?
I work as yard manager on an event yard doing the usual riding, training, 14 hour days(!), etc and the surgeon estimates it will be 6 months before I can return to work. Surely not!

 

[Pearlsasinger]

I wouldn't be surprised.
I broke my tib & fib, not compound, 4 yrs ago.
I am a teacher, the accident was at Spring Bank holiday, I went back to work at the beginning of Sept, although still having physio, had to have another 2 weeks off in October because of an infection in the stitches, finished physio in December. I started riding again, very steadily, in the November.
A much younger colleague fell recently, again broke tib & fib, not a compound fracture, she has already had 8 weeks off work, she now has a splint on the leg, is still using crutches and is not expecting to come back to work until Feb at the earliest.

 

[blueblonde123]

Hi, thanks for your reply. It seems that the surgeon was not exaggerating, although it seemed unlikely that he would I was hoping he might.

 

[Oldenburg]

I did the same over 15 years ago was in cast all the way up to my hip for 8 weeks and the pain was unbearable!! Used crutches for 2 weeks after as my leg had been bent for 8 weeks as my knee keep giving way after the cast was taken off!! I used to ride my pony with my cast on but I was young and silly but that was about 6 weeks into having my cast on!! I still have trouble now in the cold with pain!! But I hope you have a quick recovery and are back in the saddle soon!!

 

[Fransurrey]

Sorry to bear bad news but you're talking a bare minimum of 6 months. A friend of mine had a spiral fracture in either tib or fib (can't remember which) and she's been given a 12 month to 18 month total recovery time!

My Mum broke her heel in September and has been given a 6-12 month total recovery time (returning to her manual job in 5 months).

I'm a more speedy prognosis as I've *only* broke my arm and will have a total of 6 weeks off work. We've had a smashing time this year!!

Best wishes for a problem free recovery, OP. Take it easy. It seems a long time, but don't do anything silly!

 

[OFG]

Sorry to hear of your accident but glad that you are relatively OK.

I had a compound facture of my right tib / fib years ago (hit by a car while cycling). Mashed the leg up royally.

6 months is a bit optimistic but would happily be proved wrong

My case might be a worst case scerario but I was in plaster to my hip for 12 weeks, manually manipulating the lower leg to realign the 2 bones, slowly working down the leg until I was in a below the knee 'rocker'. Consultant didn't want to operate to pin / plate due to severity of break and risk of infection / rejection of metal work so wanted it to heal naturally. Had also broken left arm so they plated that to enable me to use crutches.

12 months down the line they finally decide to operate as wasn't healing. Turns out leg would never had healed as ends of bones had died. Plated leg and did a bone graft out of my hip. Another 6 months for nature to do its stuff and heal the bones properly.

All healed now but it took a long time and months of physio to sort out my wasted muscles. When the plaster finally came off I had little muscle tone to my thigh and none whatsoever below the knee. I was just skin and bone.

My right leg is now 1/2 inch shorter as they had to par away the dead stuff.

Sorry to be so doom and gloom. I am sure that I was a one off hopeless case and your facture will be quicker to heal